skrhgh3b wrote:i was flipping through a book called "dirty japanese" (i think) at the bookstore, and it listed おいら as an "i," but i always thought it was a "we," as in おれら --> おいら. but i probably just assumed that. any answers?

You're on track about where it came from. It's just language shift. Now it's often used as an alternate to おれ, most likely because of it's resemblance to おら.

AJBryant wrote:"Otaku" is a rather distant, polite way to say "you" -- you usually hear it used by the elderly or by businesspeople to customers. Literally, it means "[your] honored house." Now, in the 1960s, "The Man from UNCLE" arrived on Japanese TV. The dialogue of the character of Ilya Kuriyakin, who was a bit colder and more distant than the gregarious Napoleon Solo, was translated using "otaku" for all his references to "you." It's sense of polite distance was fitting with the personality.

This usage "caught on" in popular sentiment, and people who were somewhat detached from others started using "otaku" as their second-person pronoun. They became called "otaku-zoku" (the "otaku people").

In the late 80s, an SF and manga essayist 9and major otaku in his own right) applied the term "otaku" to people obsessed with cartoons to the point that they were divorced from actual social contacts. The term caught on, and it stuck. The first major media exposure of the term occurred during the Miyazaki murder investigation, as Miyazaki was described by the media as an otaku of the first water, and from *that* instance, the usage of "otaku" to describe an obsessed fanboy really took off in popular culture.

I was pointed here regarding the sci.lang.japan FAQ about otaku. I'm not too sure about the "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." connection, but I've reviewed the otaku article, and based on some web research I decided to heavily update the article. It was originally based on an article by David Luke in sci.lang.japan newsgroup, but more accurate information has become available, so I've edited it.